Italian Navy has signed a €500 million deal to buy the fourth and final U-212 NFS submarine, to be built by state-controlled Italian shipyard Fincantieri. With a press release, Italian defence company Fincantieri announced that it secured a €500 million contract with the Italian Navy. The signing occurred between the OCCAR Director and the General Manager of Fincantieri’s Naval Vessels Division.
The new NFS ships, which stand for Near Future Submarine, will serve alongside Italy’s four U-212 submarines and replace four Sauro-class submarines set to retire. The new purchases will keep Italy’s submarine fleet at eight, which naval planners believe is needed to patrol the increasingly congested Mediterranean.
Fincantieri said the new deal, managed by European-based contracting agency OCCAR, also includes logistical support for the new submarines. Fincantieri is set to launch the first and second NFS submarines in 2027 and 2028, and work began on the third submarine at the Muggiano shipyard in Italy this week with the “first metal cutting” ceremony with a perspective of delivery in 2032. While the first four U-212 submarines were built using German technology in partnership with Thyssenkrupp Marine Systems, the new platforms blend German and Italian know-how, with Fincantieri acting as the design authority.
The Italian firm announced that it had increased the range of the new submarines by replacing traditional lead-acid batteries with lithium batteries.
Italian planners have also introduced a Fluoropolymer coating on the hulls of the new submarines, which reduces friction and scaling, while the ships’ hydrodynamics have been upgraded from the U-212 model by changing the bow design.
